About this Book

Book Summary

In a riveting story of modern-day resilience and redemption, two boys, as close as brothers, confront separate challenges, and when circumstances reunite them years later, draw on their extraordinary natures to confront a common enemy and, ultimately, save their lives.

New York Times bestselling author Walter Mosleys novel about two boys, one ensconced in a life of privilege and the other in a life of hardship, explores the true meaning of fortune.

In spite of remarkable differences, Eric and Tommy are as close as brothers. Eric, a Nordic Adonis, is graced by a seemingly endless supply of good fortune. Tommy is a lame black boy, cursed with health problems, yet he remains optimistic and strong.

After tragedy rips their makeshift family apart, the lives of these boys diverge astonishingly: Eric, the golden youth, is given everything but trusts nothing; Tommy, motherless and impoverished, has nothing, but feels lucky every day of his life. In a riveting story of modern-day resilience and redemption, the two confront separate challenges, and when circumstances reunite them years later, they draw on their extraordinary natures to confront a common enemy and, ultimately, save their lives.

THOMAS BEERMAN was born with a hole in his lung.
Because of this birth defect, he spent the first six months of his life
in the intensive care unit at Helmutt-Briggs, a hospital in West Los
Angeles. The doctors told his mother, Branwyn, that most likely he would
not survive.

"Newborns with this kind of disorder, removed from
the physical love of their mothers, often wither," kind-eyed Dr. Mason
Settler told her.

So she came to the hospital every day after work and
watched over her son from six to eleven. She couldnt touch him because
he was kept in a glass-enclosed, germ-free environment. But they stared
into each others eyes for hours every day.

Branwyn would read to the little boy and talk to him
through the night after her shift at Ethels Florist Shop.

I know you must wonder why its always me here and
never your father," Branwyn said to her son one Thursday evening. Elton
has a lot...

Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

The tale is enjoyable but predictable to the point that it is best to read it as a sort of parable; but if that's the case, what exactly is the moral lesson Mosley wishes to impart? Is it that nurture is more important that nature, or perhaps that those who have life handed to them on a plate appreciate it less than those who have to fight for it? Or is it about prejudice and racism? Perhaps it's about all of that and much else. Then again, maybe Mosley just set out to write a story of two brothers and this is how it turned out!
(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).

It is a brilliant book, rumbling with life, scary and sacred and scented with everything that makes Los Angeles our best heaven and our best hell, a perfect backdrop for Eric's and Tommy's dream story.

Beyond the Book

Walter Mosley's books have been
translated into at least twenty-one
languages. His popular mysteries
featuring Easy Rawlins and his friend
Raymond "Mouse" Alexander began with
Devil in a Blue Dress. It was
published by W.W. Norton in 1990, and
was nominated for an Edgar. There
are now 10 books in the Easy Rawlins
series, most recently Cinnamon Kiss
(2005). Mosley has also written two
books about Socrates Fortlow and another
two about Fearless Jones, and at least
eight stand-alone novels written in a
variety of genres and prose styles.

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